Farmers' anger: after the meeting with François Bayrou, the FNSEA demands the government's commitments be fulfilled

The FNSEA is demanding that budgetary, fiscal and legislative commitments obtained last winter be implemented by the Agricultural Show.

The FNSEA is demanding that budgetary, fiscal and legislative commitments obtained last winter and reiterated Monday by Prime Minister François Bayrou be implemented by the Agricultural Show, its president Arnaud Rousseau said after a meeting at Matignon.

Bayrou's highly anticipated general policy speech

Rival union, the Rural Coordination, also received by Mr. Bayrou, indicated for its part that it was waiting for the general policy speech of the head of government on Tuesday to decide on the follow-up to its mobilization.

The deadline set for the government “is tomorrow (Tuesday). We hope to hear the demands, or at least those that cost the State nothing, in its general policy speech”, its president, Véronique Le Floc'h, told the press as she left.

“There will be no need to call on farmers to go to Paris, since they will be able to see for themselves the progress or lack of progress of the Prime Minister's announcements”, she added, considering that the Prime Minister on Monday “seemed to have discovered many points”, for example on the controls of the farms.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

The head of the FNSEA had previously mentioned “a race against time to provide solutions”. “A year ago we were already on this porch (…) We told (the Prime Minister, Editor's note) that this race against time also had a milestone which is the Agricultural Show which will take place from February 22”, for “which we need to see what we are asking for come to fruition”.

The Agricultural Show, “a milestone”

Among the demands of the majority union are the vote on an agricultural budget of some 450 million euros including fiscal measures, emergency measures in the face of health crises, and a timetable for several texts of law including measures for the “simplification” of agricultural activities.

“We reminded the Prime Minister that we needed him to get involved. That's what he did, since he told us that for the past few days, he's only heard talk of walls, budgetary walls, political walls… Faced with the agricultural wall, he told us of his desire to find solutions, to break through this wall and to quickly provide the solutions we're waiting for.”

“We told the Prime Minister that if we heard his desire to break through the wall, if we measured his desire to provide answers, we'll do it as we've done since the beginning, with concrete things”, he said again.

The Agricultural Show will be “a milestone event (…) Welcoming politicians to talk about agriculture also means asking them to come with results”, he stressed, noting that the vote on the budget targeted for mid-February would be closely monitored.

The Young Farmers (JA), received after the FNSEA, of which they are traditional allies, also found “a Prime Minister who listens”. “Now it's time for action, we'll meet at the Agricultural Show”, said its president Pierrick Horel, estimating “that the end of the first quarter will be a good time” to evaluate the actions.